Zefferina with Grand Marnier

Zefferina, a feminine blue cheese, elegant, beautiful to look at, as if dressed in a refined golden gown, one of those that you turn to look at as it passes by because of its charm. This cheese with its changeable and pleasantly fresh character, but also persistent and enveloping, almost seems to be no longer a cheese, but a gastronomic preparation, in other words we go beyond the concept of cheese refinement.

Based on our own recipe, we make this blue cheese by adding saffron to the curd in order to give it the colour and aroma characteristic of the added spice, we mature it for at least 90 days and then we treat it with the famous Grand Marnier liqueur and add orange paste and orange cubes.

The result is what you see, it has a compact and soft structure, slightly moist, easy to cut, but the important thing is to serve it with a bit of orange peel and to accompany it with the liquid that is the Grand Marnier that has penetrated inside, which during the refinement phase has been enriched with the odours and flavours of the cheese, just as in the cheese we find the citrus characteristics of the liqueur used. A complete fusion of colours, smells and flavours, for which it is even difficult to describe, in fact it is a cheese to be tasted in order to perceive the emotion of a taste experience.

When you taste it, you perceive the lactic, fruity, animal and vegetable sensations, but in a different way depending on whether you taste it close to the rind or in the middle of the paste. In addition, the sensory characteristics can vary depending on how much cheese and how much rind we taste together, so each taste can be a different discovery.

The best time to eat this cheese is definitely at the end of a meal, or even instead of dessert, with a fine dessert wine to accompany it.
We like to recommend it more as a meditation cheese, given its pleasantness, even for an after-dinner drink, to be eaten in small pieces, it can also stand up to spirits.

The rind is edible, in fact you have to take care to taste an internal and an external piece.

At the 2021-2022 World Cheese Awards in Oviedo, Spain, it won the silver medal.
At the Italian National Cheese Competition ‘INFINITI BLU’ in 2023 and 2024 it won the Excellence Prize.